Property manager killed at Reisterstown townhomes

The property manager of a Reisterstown housing development was killed in the rental office Friday morning, breaking the early morning peace at the tidy suburban complex.

Police identified the woman Saturday as 29-year-old Melinda Schaefer. An autopsy was still being completed Saturday afternoon, but she appeared to have suffered multiple stab wounds, according to officer Shawn Vinson, a spokesman for Baltimore County Police.

No arrests have been made.

Police cordoned off several houses in the Townes at Harvest View community Friday Morning, and officers moved in and out of the rental office while two men sat and watched from a balcony on the next home. Police said a custodial worker discovered a woman on the first floor of the building with "obvious signs of trauma."

Officers had obtained a warrant to formally search the building by late Friday afternoon.

A few neighbors gathered at the scene but had no information about what had happened. As Renee Johnson, 57, pulled up in a black Nissan, Brian Pinsky, 42, told her what little he knew.

"Oh my god," she said. "It's murder? ... Oh, Jesus."

Lauren Neuvel, a spokeswoman for the Bozzuto Group, which owns the development, said Schaefer was the only full-time employee at the rental office, Neuvel said.

"We're working as closely as we can with police," she added.

At the top of a slope near a Food Lion supermarket, a group of people gathered and spoke to a detective. They declined to be interviewed.

Neighbors said the community, which consists of rows of houses with garages on the bottom level and is laid out around a central square, was usually safe.

Delsa Cardoso, 30, smoked a Newport as she watched police go about their work. She said she does not let her young sons out at night, but only because she's an "overprotective" mother.